Obama looks to set next heavy-duty truck fuel-efficiency rule

President Barack Obama said new fuel efficiency rules will be proposed for large trucks by March of next year. The goal will be to improve fuel economy by between 10 to 20 percent by 2018.

By
Stephen Edelstein, Guest blogger /
February 21, 2014

David Tulis/AP/File

(Read caption)
Tractor trailer rigs parked at a gas station are covered with snow about 40 miles north of metro Atlanta, in Emerson, Ga., on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. President Barack Obama has directed the Environmental Protection Agency to develop stricter fuel-economy standards for large trucks.

The next round of regulations will run from 2019 through 2025, bringing large trucks into line with the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) rules for passenger vehicles, which now run through 2025 as well.

Small improvements, big savings

Such relatively small increments can have a large impact.

Trucks rack up far more miles than passenger vehicles--with far worse fuel economy--so they produce a disproportionate amount of emissions.

In his speech, Obama noted that heavy-duty trucks make up 4 percent of traffic on U.S. roads, but account for 20 percent of the carbon pollution from the transportation sector.

Even an improvement from 4 to 6 mpg could result in a savings of 8 gallons of fuel for every 100 miles traveled.

Diesel industry on board

Thus far, makers of diesel engines appear optimistic that they will be able to produce more fuel-efficient trucks that comply with any new regulations.

The Diesel Technology Forum--which represents diesel-engine manufacturers--said in a statement that the industry has already made great improvements to diesel efficiency, and should be able to keep pace with the Obama Administration's plans.

Over the past decade, the group says, strict new emissions limits have cut emissions from the latest large-truck engines by 99 percent for nitrogen oxides and 98 percent for particulates.

Whether truckers themselves approve of the new measures remains to be seen; many long-haul truckers opposed transferring oversight of heavy-truck fuel efficiency from the DoT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to the EPA back in 2010.

They asked the DOT to intervene and save them from the EPA, which had drafted the proposal for the regulations that take effect this year, because they feared it would raise the cost of new trucks.